Atypical dominance for language in developmental dysphasia.

The authors report an association between developmental language disorder and acquired aphasia in a 13-year-old right-handed boy. Acquired aphasia was caused by a right-frontal abscess (crossed aphasia). It was non-fluent, with a disorder of auditory comprehension, an unusual feature of prerolandic lesions. This case shows that developmental language impairment can be associated not only with an atypical cerebral dominance, but also with unusual patterns of intrahemispheric specialization. The rapid and complete recovery of this boy's aphasia suggests that the cerebral plasticity for acquired lesions can be normal in such cases.